The present invention is related to a job execution control apparatus suitable for a document processing apparatus having a plurality of functions such as copying, printing, faxing, and image filing. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a technique for stopping plural process operations executed in a parallel manner in response to an instruction from a user.
Recently, document processing apparatuses having a plurality of functions such as a digital copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and an image filing apparatus (will also be referred to as a “hybrid machine” hereinafter) have been proposed. More specifically, in recent hybrid machines, while environments under which a plurality of jobs can be executed in a parallel manner are provided, such plural jobs are executed at the same time, for instance, a document is stored during a document printing operation, and communication is established between the hybrid machines and an external appliance during the document printing operation.
On the other hand, normally, such a hybrid machine includes an operation function so as to stop a job. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 8 6745A, there is proposed such a system that all jobs are once caused to pause, and thereafter one job is selected to be canceled, and subsequently the remaining jobs are automatically restarted. Since this system may make all of these jobs pause at once, a job is conveniently stopped. However, in this system, since all of the jobs are at once brought into pausing states, such a job which must not be made to pause (for example, facsimile receiving operations) is also made to pause, resulting in a serious problem. Also, in an apparatus capable of executing a plurality of jobs at the same time, such a job that does not require a pausing operation would be brought into the pausing operation. As a result, overall productivity of the document processing apparatus would be lowered. Also, in this system, since only one job is canceled by a series of operations such as a pausing operation and a canceling operation, a user is required to execute the same operation several times so as to make a plurality of jobs pause. Accordingly, in order to solve such a problem, when a user requests to stop a job, the following method may be performed. For instance, during the simultaneous operations of these plural jobs, in order to confirm the job conditions are not made to pause, these jobs are displayed. A job to be stopped is selected from the displayed jobs, and a stop key is depressed with respect to the selected job to stop it. In accordance with this method, such a job which is not wanted, or is not required to be made to pause, is no longer brought into a pausing operation. However, in this system, the jobs are executed without any limitation for a time period during which a list of the jobs under execution is displayed, and a job which is required to be stopped is selected from the plural displayed jobs, and then this selected job is stopped. As a result, even when there is such a job which is required to be urgently stopped, this job cannot be stopped. Consequently, even when stopping a job under printing operation is desired, an ejection of paper cannot be avoided.